re, has always preserved, that true
and higher Apostolic succession in the Church; a body, I mean, which, in
addition to Episcopacy, believes that there is a standing ordinance
above Episcopacy, and gives it the name of the Apostolate?"

"On the contrary," answered Mr. Highfly, "I consider that we are
restoring what has lain dormant ever since the time of St. Paul; nay, I
will say it is an ordinance which never has been carried into effect at
all, though it was in the Divine design from the first. You will observe
that the Apostles were Jews; but there never has been a Gentile
Apostolate. St. Paul indeed was Apostle of the Gentiles, but the design
begun in him has hitherto been frustrated. He went up to Jerusalem
against the solemn warning of the Spirit; now we are raised up to
complete that work of the Spirit, which was stopped by the inadvertence
of the first Apostle."

Jack interposed: he should be very glad, he said, to know what religious
persuasion it was, besides his own, which Mr. Reding considered to have
preserved the succession of Apostles as something distinct from Bishops.

"It is quite plain whom I mean--The Catholics," answered Charles. "The
Popedom is the true Apostolate, the Pope is the successor of the
Apostles, particularly of St. Peter."

"We are very well inclined to the Roman Catholics," answered Mr.
Highfly, with some hesitation; "we have adopted a great part of their
ritual; but we are not accustomed to consider that we resemble them in
what is our characteristic and cardinal tenet."

"Allow me to say it, Mr. Highfly," said Reding, "it is a reason why
every Irvingite--I mean every member of your denomination--should become
a Catholic. Your own religious sense has taught you that there ought to
be an Apostolate in the Church. You consider that the authority of the
Apostles was not temporary, but essential and fundamental. What that
authority was, we see in St. Paul's conduct towards St. Timothy. He
placed him in the see of Ephesus, he sent him a charge, and, in fact, he
was his overseer or Bishop. He had the care of all the Churches. Now,
this is precisely the power which the Pope claims, and has ever claimed;
and, moreover, he has claimed it, as being the _successor_, and the sole
proper successor of the Apostles, though Bishops may be improperly such
also.[2] And hence Catholics call him Vicar of Christ, Bishop of
Bishops, and the like; and, I believe, consider that he, in a
pre-eminent sen